Replies

1. 
   Virginbuild | Jan 03, 2010 09:46pm | #1

   I can not help with code, but I think a special safety glass would be the concern.

   Virginbuild

2. 
   DanH | Jan 03, 2010 10:05pm | #2

   If I understand you, there's
   If I understand you, there's kind of an overlook into the kitchen (so you can see the dust on top of the cabinets, etc). I don't recall what code is (and I think they changed it recently), but so long as the opening is above a certain height it's just a window and doesn't need safety glass. Below that height it needs to be safety glass.

   There could be a fire code issue if you were opening up the wall to make this window, or removing existing glass to leave it open, but glassing in the opening shouldn't lead to fire issues.

3. 
   rjw | Jan 04, 2010 09:20am | #3

   if less than 18" above the floor, the glazing glass must be safety glass.

4. 
   JTC1 | Jan 04, 2010 09:46am | #4

   Bottom of your opening = 36" above floor.

   As rjw said, no special considerations until closer than 18" to floor.

   Jim

5. 
   GravitasDesign | Jan 05, 2010 08:35pm | #5

   Is a walkover hall like a catwalk? If it at the stairs code will require safety glazing. I would safety glaze it anyways. Kitchens often have people in them and WHEN that window gets broken it will most likely be from the hall side and shower glass to the kitchen below. A few extra dollars for safety glazing/ tempered will be good insurance.

   Derek.

6. 
   Matt | Jan 06, 2010 08:01am | #6

   Edward:

   The short answer is per the letter of the code I think you will be OK, however the proposed location of the glass is a little foggy based on your description. As someone said above, prudence would dictate installation of safty glass though.

   So, the real question is do you need safety glass in that location?

   After that, each state potentially has their own building code so the answer to your question is state dependant. Municipalities or other AHJs (authority having jurisdiction) can add to state codes so it even gets a bit tricky... I googled for "what residential building code does south Carolina use?" and got the following page:

   SC code in effect

   One problem with looking at stuff on the internet is that you often don't know how current a page is - especially when people don't put dates on their documents. Looking at that page though, it says the residential code in effect is the International Residential Code 2003 with SC amendments. For all I know though they could of likely adopted 2006 IRC by now.

   Looking at my IRC2003 (modified with NC changes) the IRC section that covers your question is R308.4. The title of that section is R308 is "Glazing", and subsection .4 is "Hazardous locations." Unfortunately, my code book has that section modified for NC, so you need to look at a SC residential code book at R308.4 #s 7, 9 & 10 which deal with glass in hallways, landings, and near stairs.

7. 
   Ingleton1 | Jan 10, 2010 08:17pm | #7

   From my experience building glass solarium additions, kneewalls had to be 16" or higher from the finish floor before we could use regular annealed glass. Any walls under 16" supporting glass required the glazing to be tempered or safety glass.

   But always check with your local building authorities because the size of the opening also dictates the thickness of the glass requirements.

   We used to always put in safety glass no matter what the height of the walls were. The last thing that I would ever want to hear is that a person or child got injured from anything that I ever installed. The additional cost of safety was our selling feature of the job as opposed to "just meeting building code".